Creative Spaces

In All Stitched Up! issue #275 we unpacked the idea of making the space we’ve set aside for needle and thread truly our own. We were encouraged to think about the space from the inside out and pondered the idea put forth by David Hieatt that beauty, light and air quality are paramount considerations when designing spaces, especially those that serve our wellbeing well.

In a later email, David went on to explain the inextricable link between wellbeing and creativity. Whilst he likens it to, ‘drinking a freshly brewed coffee while watching the sunrise’ in that ‘you can have one without the other, (but) life is so much sweeter when you have them both’, a study by the BBC in 2018 confirmed that a person’s wellbeing is positively affected by taking part in just a single creative activity. It therefore goes to reason that if we improve our creativity, we’ll also improve our wellbeing.

That’s why it’s so important to make sure our space is helping us achieve our creative potential.

Not only will this serve our time with needle and thread well, but it will also help us to ensure our wellbeing is fed throughout the process.

Now before you think months of planning or contacting an interior designer to achieve what may seem a huge task, David went on to share three simple ideas that any of us can implement to help make our space more creative:

• Include Sources of Inspiration. Creativity requires us to be inspired by things that speak not just to what we’re doing specifically, but also to things that might be unusual or seemingly unconnected. Think different disciplines, artists and makers. And the good news for the ‘not so tidy’ among us? Research has shown that messy environments can actually stimulate creative thinking!
• Listen to Background Noise. Just like the idea of ‘Café Creativity’ that we explored in All Stitched Up! issue #274, moderate and low levels of ambient background noise can enhance our performance of creative tasks. Want to bring the noise of a café to your creative space, simply Google ‘Brown Noise’.
• Surround Yourself with Creative Colours. Seeing certain colours before starting a creative task can enhance performance, with green in particular being highlighted in a study published by Sage Journals in 2012. The good news is that we don’t have to paint a whole wall, but rather just splash colour somewhere in our space will work just as well.

We’d love to hear about the ways you’ve found to improve your creativity. Simply email news@inspirationsstudios.com, we can’t wait to hear what it is about your space that inspires your time with needle and thread.